I Love Sushi

I Love Sushi
494 Queen St West

I was joined for lunch this week by not one but two women from New Jersey. I thought I had died and gone to fake tan/popped collar heaven. I mean, thats what jersey is all about right? Well that and dead Italian guys on the boardwalk. I know how these things work. I watched Sopranos.

We barely avoided a great whopping thunderstorm, and since the weather was pretty good we ventured a little bit further than our usual haunts at Queen and Spadina. This time we visited I (heart) Sushi which is closer to Bathurst on Queen than Spadina. Apparently this place has won several “web surfers choice awards” from Menupalace.com. This is the first warning, as the aforementioned site is nothing but an advertising portal.

First off, perusing the menu was painful at best. They were old, and had been corrected with tape at least once. Add to that the menu items pretty much scattered all over the place. Points for directing people to the vegetarian items on the first page. After humming and hawing for a few minutes I made my order, and then grabbed a take out menu as is my custom. Man, they should just be giving these out as they’re much more colourful and easy to read. Second problem noticed though. The take out menu has higher prices. I think it’s time you threw away the “sit down” menu guys.

I went with the Soft Shelled Crab roll ($8.99), and was of two minds about it. On one hand the actual soft shell crab was an anemic little thing, and definitely below par size wise. However, they seemed to realize this and “fleshed it out” (ooh! bad pun!) with real crab meat. Or at least not the usual crab stick. It was certainly filling and tasty, but I couldn’t help but feel a little under served with crabby goodness.

I also went with Sushi Pizza ($7.99). Thank-you Jackie. However, this also brought up a couple of problems. Firstly, it arrived right at the end of the meal. The timing of everything was really all over the place. Secondly, it was nothing like described on the menu, and like no other sushi pizza I’ve had before. The menu states that it’s the same as everywhere. A rice patty pan fried with mayo and salmon. What appeared had the rice patty part right, but thats where the similarities end. There was cheese on top. Cheese. No mayo. No Salmon. I actually flagged down the waitress and asked “What the heck is this?” Apparently the chef screwed up. A plate of salmon was brough and I topped it myself, but cooked cheese and raw salmon may well go together, but sushi pizza it is not.

The service is going to have to get a thumbs down. While the waitress was nice and attentive, what was brought out was not-as-advertised and timing wise it was not prepared with any sort of logical order. What, am I going to complain that my sushi got cold?

Now, while there may have been a waitress that was very, uhm, distracting, it doesn’t sway me from strafing this place. For the first time I’m going to recommend to avoid. Queen St. has a plethora of sushi places. Why go here when there’s much better a few minutes away?